Judge or Ohtani could join exclusive group in winning World Series plus MVP in same season

Aaron Judge is the leading candidate for this year’s American League MVP Award. Shohei Ohtani is the leading candidate for this year’s National League MVP Award.

One of these superstar sluggers likely will join an exclusive fraternity in MLB history.

The MVP Award is among the most prestigious individual honors a player can receive in MLB. But to win an MVP Award and achieve the ultimate team goal of winning the World Series in the same year is something else altogether.

In the Divisional Era (since 1969), 12 players have won an MVP Award and a World Series ring in the same year, the ultimate combination of individual and collective performance. Here’s a look at each one:

2018: Mookie Betts, Red Sox
Before he was putting up MVP-caliber numbers for the Dodgers, Betts won the AL MVP Award in 2018 while a member of the Red Sox. He led the Majors with a .346 batting average, .640 slugging percentage and 129 runs scored that season. He also belted 32 home runs and stole 30 bases while playing stellar defense in right field that earned him his third consecutive Gold Glove Award.

Betts’ tremendous performance helped fuel Boston’s deep October run that culminated in a six-game World Series win over his future team, the Dodgers.

2017: Jose Altuve, Astros
He may be small in physical stature, but Altuve’s numbers have been prodigious throughout an illustrious career as the second baseman for the Astros. In 2017, he helped lead Houston to its first World Series title with a huge regular season in which he posted a .957 OPS and led MLB in hits (204) and batting average (.346), before batting .310 with seven home runs and 14 RBIs during the playoffs.

Two of Altuve’s seven homers that postseason came in the World Series against the Dodgers, a see-saw seven-game affair that ended when Corey Seager hit a ground ball to Altuve at second for the final out at Dodger Stadium.

2016: Kris Bryant, Cubs
Bryant’s ascension in the Major Leagues after being one of the most hyped prospects in recent memory was rapid — he won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 2015, and then followed that up by being named NL MVP in ’16. The Cubs, ahead of schedule in their rebuild, went ahead and won it all for the first time in 108 years with a thrilling extra-inning victory in Game 7 of the World Series against Cleveland.

As would be the case with Altuve the next fall, Bryant was the one to make the final play of the Fall Classic, fielding a ground ball off the bat of Michael Martinez and throwing Martinez out to end the longest championship drought in North American sports history.

2012: Buster Posey, Giants
Posey, who was recently named the president of baseball operations for the Giants, quickly became a franchise legend after making his MLB debut in 2009. By the fall of 2010, he had helped lead the Giants to their first World Series championship since moving to San Francisco 52 years earlier. The star catcher was an anchor of two more championship clubs over the next four years.

In 2012, Posey won the NL MVP Award by hitting an MLB-best .336 and posting an MLB-best 171 OPS+, all the while guiding San Francisco’s pitching staff. He then launched a grand slam in Game 5 of the NL Division Series against the Reds to fuel San Francisco to the first comeback from an 0-2 playoff series deficit on the road. In the Fall Classic, he belted his third homer of the postseason in a sweep of the Tigers.

1988: Kirk Gibson, Dodgers
When the Dodgers signed Gibson, they had no idea just how important the star outfielder would become to their club in 1988. An otherwise light-hitting lineup had a passionate slugger in the 31-year-old who had won a World Series with the Tigers in 1984. Gibson posted an .860 OPS with 25 home runs and 31 steals to win the NL MVP Award four years later.

That performance set the stage for one of the most famous home runs in World Series history. Hobbled by injuries to both knees, Gibson was not in the starting lineup for Game 1 against the heavily favored A’s. In the ninth inning, he was called upon to pinch-hit with the Dodgers trailing, 4-3, and facing the game’s premier closer, Dennis Eckersley. Gibson limped to the plate and belted a stunning walk-off homer, igniting an improbable five-game victory for the Dodgers.

1984: Willie Hernandez, Tigers
Gibson was on this Tigers club, too, but it was Hernandez who proved to be most valuable — both in the AL and the World Series against the Padres. The rare pitcher to win both the MVP Award and the Cy Young Award for his league in the same season, Hernandez dominated opponents out of the bullpen to the tune of a 1.92 ERA in a Major League-leading 80 appearances (140 1/3 innings).

The left-handed reliever pitched to a 1.93 ERA over nine appearances during the 1984 postseason, including three appearances in the World Series against San Diego, over which he yielded one run over 5 1/3 innings. Hernandez closed out the title-clinching Game 5 against San Diego for Detroit’s first championship in 16 years.

1983: Cal Ripken Jr., Orioles
In just his second full big league season, Ripken followed up a Rookie of the Year campaign with an MVP Award, and along with Eddie Murray — who finished runner-up to Ripken in AL MVP voting — led the Orioles to the World Series. The man who would come to be known as the Iron Man for breaking Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played tasted individual and team success early in his career.

In his age-22 season, Ripken hit .318/.371/.517 for the Orioles in 1983, leading the Majors in hits (211) and doubles (47) while also connecting for 27 home runs to go along with his excellent defense at shortstop. Like some others on this prestigious list, he made the final putout of the World Series, catching a line drive to clinch the title over the Phillies in Game 5.

1980: Mike Schmidt, Phillies
Schmidt set career highs with 48 home runs and 121 RBIs while posting a 1.004 OPS in 1980, also winning the fifth of 10 career Gold Glove Awards. His MVP season helped the Phillies win their first World Series title in a showdown with fellow star third baseman and AL MVP George Brett and the Royals.

While Brett had a tremendous series of his own, batting .375 with a homer, it was Schmidt who took home World Series MVP honors by hitting .381 with a pair of homers in the six-game Philadelphia victory.

1979: Willie Stargell, Pirates
The “We Are Family” Pirates had an inimitable leader, and they aptly referred to him as “Pops.” Stargell led not only in the clubhouse, but on the field, where he was the driving force behind Pittsburgh’s run to a World Series title.

In his age-39 season, after three top-three MVP finishes in his career, Stargell won the NL MVP Award in 1979 (co-MVP with Keith Hernandez of the Cardinals) by posting a .904 OPS with 32 home runs in 126 games. Stargell then won both the NLCS and World Series MVP Awards, fueling the Bucs’ lineup by batting .415 with six doubles and five homers across 10 postseason games that fall.

1976: Joe Morgan, Reds
Morgan is the only player to appear twice on this list, winning his league’s MVP Award and the World Series in back-to-back years as the “Big Red Machine” Reds became the first NL team in more than half a century to win World Series titles in consecutive years (the New York Giants won it all in 1921 and ’22).

In 1976, Cincinnati swept the Yankees for the title. Morgan hit .333 with a double, a triple and a homer in the series. During the regular season, he led the Majors with a .444 on-base percentage, .576 slugging percentage and a 187 OPS+ while also hitting 27 homers and stealing 60 bases. He also won the fourth of five consecutive Gold Glove Awards at the keystone position.

1975: Joe Morgan, Reds
The Big Red Machine faced off against the Red Sox in one of the greatest World Series ever played in October 1975. But before that, Morgan won his first NL MVP Award by hitting .327/.466/.508 with a Major League-best 132 walks to go along with 17 home runs and 67 stolen bases.

In that year’s Fall Classic, Morgan delivered a walk-off single to lift Cincinnati to a Game 3 win and a 2-1 series lead. Game 6 is remembered for Carlton Fisk’s famous walk-off home run that hit the left-field foul pole at Fenway Park in the 12th inning to force a Game 7. But the Reds prevailed in the decisive contest to bring Cincinnati its first World Series championship in 35 years.

1973: Reggie Jackson
Several years before he became forever known as “Mr. October,” Jackson already had substantial World Series experience, winning a pair of rings with the A’s in 1973 and ’74. In ’73, Jackson earned a trifecta of Major League accolades, winning the AL MVP Award, the World Series and the World Series MVP Award.

During the regular season, Jackson launched 32 homers, drove in 117 runs, scored 99 runs and slugged .531 with a .914 OPS, leading the league in each of those categories. In the World Series against the Mets, he batted .310 with three doubles, a triple and a Game 7 homer to help Oakland win the second of three straight championships.

1970: Boog Powell, Orioles
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Powell towered over most players on the field, and did so at the plate in 1970, where he belted 35 home runs with 114 RBIs and a .962 OPS for the Orioles to win the AL MVP Award after finishing runner-up for the honor in ’69. Baltimore reached the World Series in three straight years from 1969-71, but it was in ’70 that the O’s won it.

In a five-game victory over the Reds, Powell hit .294 with a double and a pair of home runs. Brooks Robinson took home World Series MVP honors thanks to his .429 average with two homers and the spectacular defensive clinic he put on at third base.